


Berry, Berry, Quite Contrary

by TheSunshineDragon



Series: Pieces of The Healer's Cottage [8]
Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Medieval, Family Feels, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Rescue, and Minho's cats, cause why not, featuring Berry, the rest of them are just mentioned - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-23
Updated: 2020-09-23
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:00:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26609431
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheSunshineDragon/pseuds/TheSunshineDragon
Summary: Do they already have three cats inhabiting the cottage? Yes.But can Chan just leave the dog in the alley? No.Chan rescues a small dog after a small storm and the gang ends up with another member of the Healer's Cottage.
Series: Pieces of The Healer's Cottage [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1917703
Comments: 4
Kudos: 19





	Berry, Berry, Quite Contrary

**Author's Note:**

> This doesn't require reading of previous parts of Pieces of the Healer's Cottage, just knowledge that it's a Medieval AU (emphasis on AU), but that's not heavily mentioned in this particular fic.

The town was an absolute mess from last night’s thunderstorm. The streets had turned into a thick, black mud, puddles everywhere that wasn’t tread by human or horse. Chan was balancing his way across a couple of boards that someone had put down to try to keep their boots out of the mud to get between the breaks in the boardwalk when he heard whimpering from the alleyway. He turned his head to look down the alleyway to find two small eyes staring at him from the mud.

  
Frowning, he stepped off of the boards into the deep mud, cringing when it came uncomfortably close to the top of his boot with a squelching noise.

“Hey, there,” Chan said quietly, creeping through the mud towards the small animal. Something just above the eyes moved and Chan realized he was looking at a dog attempting to wag its tail in greeting.

A very muddy, very stuck dog.

“Looks like you got a little stuck there, yeah?” 

The dog whimpered again, wriggling a little as Chan came next to it, swinging his bag behind him underneath his cloak to get it out of the way as he reached for the dog. The poor thing was stuck in a bramble bush growing beside the house, covered in a layer of mud so thick Chan couldn’t even see its coloring to see what kind of dog it was.

Warm brown eyes stared curiously at Chan as he bent down to see if he could free the dog from where it was stuck. Its matted tail tried to wag again, its little pink tongue sticking out and trying to lick some of the mud from its face.

Chan cooed, rubbing the dog’s head with his gloved hand, then reached to try to get it unstuck from the brambles.

Several yelps, apologies, and a set of muddied gloves later, Chan was walking down the street with the dog wrapped in his cloak, secured under his arm.

~~~

When Minho walked into the kitchen that evening, he was not expecting Chan to be laughing and yelling “No, no, no!” at the sink, much less the small, soaking wet, dog that was wetly wagging its tail in said sink. Suds lined the sink and floor around it, water was everywhere, and small pile of what looked like a mess of fur and thorns was in a neat pile by the sink.

“What in the world do you have there?”

Chan started, turning around to see who was behind him, hand halfway to the scissors that lay near the sink. “Oh, Minho!” The hand retracted and a blinding smile lit Chan’s face. “Look at who I found.”

Soon-ie meowed in greeting from her position on the table, Minho rubbing her head as he passed by, looking over Chan’s shoulder at the small dog in the sink, who greeted him with a wag and a small bark.

“It’s dog.” Minho curled his lip slightly in distain.

He had brought three cats home for a reason, thank you very much.

“I was thinking Berry,” Chan said, rinsing the rest of the soap off of the now brown and white dog, who, quite frankly, was looking very rat-like and ugly with how wet it was.

“You already named it?”

“She, and yes. Soon-ie seemed to like her.”

Minho turned around to glare at his cat. “Traitor.”

Soon-ie meowed and shook her head, seeming to smirk a little.

Chan dried Berry as best he could with the towel, but the small dog still tore around the house like her tail was on fire, scaring Dori in the process (Doong-ie was almost always hiding somewhere in the rafters).

“You shouldn’t have brought her home. What if she chews the furniture? Or goes to the bathroom everywhere?”

Chan gave Minho a deadpan look. “You brought home three _street_ cats. How much trouble could a little dog like her be?”

Okay, that was fair.

Still didn’t mean Minho like dogs (though he would never intentionally harm the creatures).

After a week or so, Berry adjusted quite nicely to the Healer’s Cottage, not doing any of the dreadful and terrible things Minho had predicted (though a pair of long socks got donated to the toy box by accident). Much to Minho’s shock (and Chan’s amusement), Doong-ie was the only cat that didn’t take to Berry. The two remained in an eternal standoff, growling and hissing at each other in passing, and making sure to stay out of each other’s way at all costs (even if it meant taking the long route through the rafters or underneath the furniture to make it to the intended destination).

When they got back from their respective trips, Hyunjin, Felix, Han, and Jeongin immediately fell in love with the small dog, with Changbin remaining indifferent about the whole thing (Seungmin took a bit longer, due to his past, but Chan eventually caught them napping together one winter afternoon on the couch by the fireplace). Minho, though he would never admit it under any circumstances, found the energy the small dog possessed to be a nice counterbalance to his lazy (but beloved) cats. Random scraps from dinner would appear in Berry’s food bowl and sometimes Berry could be found gnawing on a mysteriously appearing bone from the butcher’s, tail thumping happily against the floor.

All in all, Berry made a nice addition to the collection of strays (both animal and human) that inhabited Healer's Cottage. Chan smiled a little more with Berry around, which made everyone happier, and sometimes she provided comfort and a distraction to the small children that Minho and Felix sometimes had trouble with when dealing with the injuries.

A very nice addition, indeed. 

~~~

_Extra Scene That Didn't Quite Fit Anywhere Else_

“I thought you said you didn’t like dogs, Minho.”

“I don’t.”

“Then why are you bathing Berry?”

“Because she stinks and is covered in dirt.”

“That isn’t the talk of someone who doesn’t like Berry.”

“Oh, shut up, Hyunjin.”

**Author's Note:**

> This was definitely longer than I was expecting it to be and it didn't turn out quite how I would've liked it. I had hoped to add a bit more about everyone's reactions, buuuuuuuut that's not how this fic went, so it is what it is XD Maybe I'll edit something in later, but I hate doing that, so maybe not. Anyways, Hyunjin or Felix's backstory is going to be next, I think. And Chickens in the Yard should also have an update soon :D
> 
> Have a fabulous day!


End file.
